The Prisoner Of Stone/Part 2
Far outside the village, the evil witch named Chlorhydris is alone in her observatory with her pet toucan, sitting in her favorite chair, sulking and feeling miserable about herself. "Blast this cursed day...how I hate it so," Chlorhydris said as she looked at the calendar with the days of the current month marked off up to the 14th. "Awwwk, why's it that?" her toucan asked. "It was thirty years ago on this very day when my one true love, Manfred the Magnificent, the most truly wonderful wizard that ever lived, broke my heart," Chlorhydris answered as she picked up a picture frame that had the image of her beloved framed in it. She held the image close to her chest as she closed her eyes and thought about the days of her youth. "I could remember the day when we first met, which was at sorcery school, when he came to visit my fellow classmate Drusilla. She thought that she was the best-looking witch out of all the young witches that attended the school...oh, how she thought that very much. I honestly don't know what Manfred could ever see in a woman like her that made him think that she was anything that she imagined herself to be." She saw herself and her classmate Drusilla back in the school they both attended, on the night that she and Manfred first met. Manfred was waiting beneath the balcony of Drusilla's bedroom, looking eager to be with the woman that he first loved. "Oh, Drusilla, Drusilla, wherefore art thou, Drusilla?" Manfred called out, hoping to catch the young witch's attention. Drusilla went out to the balcony when she heard her beloved's voice. "Manny!" she exclaimed, excited to see him appear. "Oh, my dearest, come and jump into these raging arms," Manfred said, extending his arms out as he was preparing to catch her. "Ready or not, here I come," Drusilla said as she threw herself off the balcony to be caught by her beloved. "Well, hello there, big boy," another female voice broke in, which drew Manfred's attention away from Drusilla. He turned and saw another female standing on another balcony, wearing a hood over her head and looking even more attractive than Drusilla. "Well, hello," Manfred said as he walked away from under Drusilla's balcony to stand under the other woman, allowing Drusilla to land on the ground with only her pride hurt. "I don't think I ever had the pleasure of meeting you before. Tell me, what is your name?" "Oh, my name is Chlorhydris," the other woman said. "I hope that I wasn't distracting you from something more important in your life." "Why, not at all, not at all," Manfred said. And Drusilla looked on in jealousy as Manfred caught Chlorhydris when she jumped into his arms and went off together on a date. "From that day forward, Manfred and I were inseparable," the Chlorhydris of the present said as she continued to recall the days of her youth, now seeing herself in those moments of happiness that she shared with her beloved. "It was the best years of my life that I ever had with a man, even though Drusilla tried her best to make trouble for the both of us. Then came the day when he asked me that important question, of whether or not I would marry him. I accepted his proposal like the foolish young girl that I was, and soon I was in the chapel, preparing for the moment when we would be joined together as sorcerer and wife." She saw her younger self standing in the vestibule with another girl putting the final touches to the wedding dress that the witch wore on that day, when Drusilla burst into the room, looking rather mischievous with an evil smile on her face. "Drusilla!" Chlorhydris exclaimed. "I don't seem to remember inviting you to the wedding." "Don't fool yourself with believing that you're ever going to be happy with Manfred, Chlorhydris," Drusilla said. "He's never going to marry a witch like you, never in a million years. You just wait and see if he will show up at your wedding and take you as his bride." "Manfred will come for me, just as he promised, Drusilla," Chlorhydris said. "Now begone from me or I will show you how much I love that man." "You're going to be a lonely old witch for the rest of your life...mark my words," Drusilla said, laughing cruelly as she left the vestibule, pleased to have gotten under her rival's skin. "I tried to pay no attention to every evil thing that she said on that day, but I waited and waited for Manfred to show up at the altar, and by the time that night fell, I came to realize how right she was, when I sat there at the entrance of the church with my heart broken," Chlorhydris of the present said as she saw herself still clutching the bouquet from her wedding and looking like the whole world had turned against her on that day. "I have never seen Manfred since, and all he left me with is a daughter that I had to take care of on my own...the cruelest thing that a man like him could ever leave me with." "Awwwwk, that's a sad story," her toucan said as she rose up from her chair, placed her portrait of Manfred face down on a table, and went over to her giant telescope to look out at the forest outside her observatory. "How I hate love and what it has done to me, playing with my heart and making me think that I was ever going to be happy with someone in my life," Chlorhydris said. "I swore on that day that if the world was going to deny me love, then I would return the favor and deny the whole world love. There would be no more happiness, no more singing, no more private moments of intimacy being shared between people, and the most important of all, no more children ever created from those moments. I would make the whole world be as dark and cold as my heart has been since that very day that my wedding was not meant to happen." She looked out into the forest to see what was going on in it when her attention was turned to a small human figure with wings, wearing a waistcloth and carrying a bow and arrow. "And there is the cause of it all...that rotten Cupid," she said with great disgust. "He would dare to inflame people's hearts with the desire of love, to make them believe that they would ever have a chance of being happy with each other." With her magic earrings on, Chlorhydris watched and listened to what Cupid was doing right at that moment. "With targets this big, how could I miss?" he said to himself as he saw a buck and a doe together with each other, preparing to shoot a love arrow at them to make them fall in love. He pulled back on the bowstring and let the arrow fly, but instead of hitting either of the deer, it just flew over one of the deer's heads as the buck lowered his head to eat some grass. "Oh, that's how," Cupid said with some disappointment. The arrow continued to fly, bouncing off a rock, until it struck the ground near a couple of snakes that were slithering in its path. The arrow had its effect of making the two snakes coil up with each other as though they wanted to be together and intimate with each other right at that moment. "Blast those lovey-dovey arrows," Chlorhydris hissed as she turned away from the telescope, repulsed at the sight of even the creatures in the forest being in love with each other. "Well, before I'm through, I'll make sure that this day is miserable for everyone else as it is for me." She went over to a table and pulled away a cloth to reveal arrows that were tipped with black hearts at one end. "With my special black-heart arrows, Cupid will be the instrument for my spreading hate into the world, where instead of a burning desire of love for one another, people will now have a burning desire for hate. And if there's one group of people that I would want to see infested with the black heart of hate, it's those wretched miserable Smurfs." ----- Meanwhile, out in the forest, Sassette was collecting flowers for the centerpiece that would be used at the Smurfy Friendship Day party. happily singing the Smurf song, when her attention was turned to the boy Smurflings as they were with a group of small mice, with Nat training them to do a trick. "All right now...when I give the signal, you jump, okay?" Nat said to the mice, as Snappy and Slouchy were patiently waiting while holding up a floral wreath for the mice to jump through. The mice nodded in agreement, and then when Nat said, "Jump!", the mice jumped through the hoop with no problem. "Smurfabunga...that was a neat trick, Nat," Slouchy said. "Wait until Smurfette sees our entertainment for the party," Snappy said. "Maybe she'll be so impressed that she'll smurf each of us a big kiss," Nat said. "You really think so?" Slouchy said. "I mean, she's so pretty, but none of us could ever smurf her attention like Empath does." "There's no Smurfette in the world that could ever smurf our attention like she does, Slouchy, especially me," Snappy said. "When this day is through, she's going to smurf me the biggest kiss of all." "That's what you think, Snap," Nat said, as he and Slouchy both laughed together. Sassette overheard what the boy Smurflings were talking about and decided to join in on the conversation. "Well, what about me, fellows? Don't you think that I look pretty?" she asked. "Do I think you look pretty?" Snappy said. "Well, you know, for a Smurf your age..." "I guess that we do think you're pretty," Slouchy said. "Preening peacocks, you sure know how to make me feel appreciated," Sassette said, noticing how lukewarm her fellow Smurflings' responses were. "Don't smurf it the wrong way, Sassy...it's just that we feel a little differently from how we feel about Smurfette," Slouchy said. "A little? What do you mean, a little?" Snappy said. "Well, Sassy is a one-of-a-kind Smurfette herself too," Slouchy said. "She's the only female Smurf that we have who's our age. Who knows, she might grow up to become as pretty as Smurfette." "Yeah, right, like Sassette would ever be attractive enough for the likes of me," Snappy said. "Come on, guys, we've got a lot more practicing to do before the party," Nat said. Sassette watched as the boy Smurflings went off together with their pet mice. "Simpering salamanders, maybe Smurfy Friendship Day isn't everything that it's cracked up to be," Sassette said, sounding very depressed. ----- Cupid then teleported to another location, and saw something that caught his attention...a male-and-female pair of squirrels chattering away on a tree branch together. "Well, what do you know?" he said to himself. "There's a little lady with the right idea. I'd better give her partner a clue." He pulled out a love arrow and tried to take aim at the male squirrel before he let the arrow fly. However, the arrow bounced off the tree that the squirrels were squatting on and then struck another tree, sending down hearts of love upon impact. "Oh well," Cupid said, shrugging his shoulders after realizing that he missed his target. "It doesn't hurt to have a little extra love in the air." The hearts of love rained down on the three boy Smurflings as they were preparing for another practice session with the mice. "Raise it higher, Snappy," Nat said. "How's this?" Snappy asked as he and Slouchy raised up the floral wreath just before the hearts touched the three of them, making them feel somehow different. "Gee, I sure hope that these are enough flowers for the party," Sassette said as she passed by the boy Smurflings while carrying a bunch of flowers she had collected. "Sassette!" the boy Smurflings said together, startling her and causing her to drop the bunch of flowers onto the ground. "Here, let me help you with those," Nat said as he and Slouchy rushed to pick up the flowers Sassette had dropped. "Yeah, a beautiful Smurfette like you shouldn't have to do this," Slouchy said. "Say, what's smurfed into you boys?" Sassette asked. "Why are you so nice to me all of a sudden?" "Well, why shouldn't we be so nice to you?" Snappy said. "After all, it's Smurfy Friendship Day, the one day where we can show how much we are crazy about you." With that, he took Sassette's left hand and kissed it. "I've got these," Nat said as he carried a pile of flowers. "And I've got these," Slouchy said as he carried another pile of flowers. "And I've got you," Snappy said as he picked Sassette up in his arms to carry her. "It's my pleasure, Sassette." "Hey, let me carry her," Nat said, as he and Slouchy followed behind the two of them. "No, let me carry her," Slouchy said. "You boys are surely being carried away with wanting to carry me," Sassette said. ----- Cupid then teleported over to the River Smurf. "Boy, this time of the year surely gives me a workout, and it's only my birthday," he said to himself as he wiped his brow. "I think it's time for me to take a break. After all, I've got to freshen myself up for the party that the Smurfs are holding for me, and I can't disappoint them, seeing how so many years ago I've helped to bring their village together with one of my arrows." With that, he set aside his bow and his quiver of arrows by a tree near the riverside and then dove right into the water for a swim. As he was relaxing, he didn't notice that Chlorhydris was out in the forest, wearing a cloak and hood so that she wouldn't be recognized by anybody. She laughed as she pulled aside some bushes she was hiding behind while she was watching Cupid. "Now's my chance," she said to herself as she took Cupid's quiver of love arrows and switched them with her quiver full of black-heart arrows. "Let's see how happy this day is when he fires these arrows of hate. When the world slowly becomes as black-hearted as I am, then I shall have my revenge upon a world that would dare to tempt my heart with love." ----- Back in the Smurf Village, Sassette found herself in the playhouse, being pampered by her fellow Smurflings as Slouchy provided pillows for her to rest on and Snappy fanned her with a giant leaf. "Gee, fellows, I appreciate all the attention you're smurfing me today, but aren't you smurfing just a little bit overboard?" Sassette asked. "Oh, it's no trouble, Sassette," Slouchy said as he brought over another pillow to put behind Sassette's head. "Wait until you see what we smurfed with the flowers," Nat said, before he pulled aside a cloth and revealed that the flowers were arranged in a heart shape with Sassette's image in the center. "For you, Sassette." "Hey, those flowers are supposed to be for the centerpieces," Sassette said. "But you're the centerpiece of our heart," Snappy said, with the three of them now looking at her in a way that was starting to creep Sassette out. "This is getting weird," Sassette said as she found herself racing out the door, trying to get herself away from her fellow Smurflings. The boy Smurflings went to the door to see where Sassette went when they saw Smurfette near the playhouse with the heart-shaped cards that were made for her. "Oh, boys, I have just found these by my door," Smurfette said as she showed the cards. "You are so thoughtful to smurf me your best wishes for Smurfy Friendship Day." But then Smurfette watched as the boy Smurflings took the cards out of her hands and ran off with them, looking rather confused. "Sassette...oh, Sassette!" the boy Smurflings shouted as they raced off to find her. Polaris Psyche came by as he was doing his security rounds. "This one senses that you are perturbed about something that had just happened to you recently," he said. "I just came by to thank the Smurflings for their cards when they just smurfed them from me and called out for Sassette," Smurfette said. "I don't know what's smurfed into them to do such a thing like that." "This one doesn't fully understand the dynamics of Smurf behavior to give you a suitable answer for your dilemma, fellow Smurfette," Polaris said. ----- Meanwhile, Empath was with Papa Smurf and Grandpa Smurf as the two elder Smurfs are working together on heart-shaped frames for a pair of glasses. "How are Cupid's glasses smurfing along, Papa Smurf?" Grandpa Smurf asked. "They're almost ready, Grandpa Smurf," Papa Smurf said as he examined the frames with a special magnifying glass. "Now all we have to do is smurf the lenses and..." Suddenly Sassette just burst in through the door of Papa Smurf's laboratory. "Pappy...Grandpa...Empath...thank Smurfness you're here," she said, trying to catch her breath. "You've got to do something about the boy Smurflings...they're crazy about me." Grandpa Smurf chuckled. "Well, of course they are, my dear Sassette. Everybody in the village is crazy about you." "No, I mean really crazy about me," Sassette said. Before any of the three adult Smurfs could say anything, the three boy Smurflings also appeared at the door, carrying their heart-shaped cards. "Oh, Sassette!" they said together. "This smurf senses that they have been filled with an amorous desire for Sassette, Papa Smurf," Empath said as they watched the boy Smurflings chase Sassette around. "So I see," Papa Smurf said. "I have a feeling that Cupid must be behind this." "Well, shouldn't we do something to keep the boy Smurflings from harassing her, Papa Smurf?" Empath asked. "I think that you should just let the boys be boys and the girls be girls when it smurfs to matters of love, my young Empath," Grandpa Smurf said. "How can it hurt if they just want to smurf how much they care for their little sister?" "I would have to agree with Grandpa Smurf on this, Empath," Papa Smurf said. "Besides, who knows if this is what Cupid really wants to smurf with our fellow Smurfs?" Empath sighed as he just stood there and watch the boy Smurflings chase Sassette out the door. "If you insist that's what should be done, Papa Smurf, then this smurf acknowledges." Smurf to Part 3 Category:Empath the Luckiest Smurf stories Category:The Prisoner Of Stone chapters